Conviction in ’76 rape, murder of Peninsula teens

Conviction in ’76 rape, murder of Peninsula teens

1of2Rodney Halbower, seen in this 1976 booking shot, was convicted Tuesday of raping and murdering two teenage girls on the Peninsula in 1976.Photo: Courtesy, FBI

2of2FILE - This undated file photo provided by the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office shows Rodney Halbower. A Northern California jury has started its deliberations in the murder trial of a career criminal authorities believe is the Gypsy Hill Killer. San Mateo County jurors started deliberating late Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018, after eight days of testimony in Redwood City, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of San Francisco. Halbower is charged with raping and killing two teenage women in 1976 in the quiet suburbs just south of San Francisco. (San Mateo County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)Photo: San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office

A jury in Redwood City on Tuesday found guilty a career criminal of raping and murdering two teenage Peninsula girls more than 42 years ago.

The San Mateo County jury deliberated for a little more than an hour before finding Rodney Halbower guilty.

Authorities believe the 69-year-old, thought to be the “Gypsy Hill Killer,” is responsible for other rapes and murders of girls and young women in Northern California and Reno over a five-month span in 1976. In 2004, advances in DNA technology connected Halbower to the murders. He was in an Oregon prison at the time.

Halbower is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 10 in Redwood City. The judge is required to sentence Halbower under the sentencing laws of 1976, the year the crimes occurred.

District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said the stiffest sentence available then was life with the possibility of parole. Wagstaffe said the judge can impose consecutive sentences, meaning if Halbower was given parole for one murder, he would start serving the life sentence for the second.

“Our expectation is that this monster of a killer will never, ever, be allowed to be free on our streets again,” Wagstaffe said.

The murders remained a mystery for four decades until a cold-case detective re-opened the investigation. He scraped DNA samples from cigarette butts found at the scene and in 2014 they were discovered to match Halbower’s genetic makeup. DNA taken from the victims also matched Halbower’s DNA, prosecutors told jurors.